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Russia Claims it has Developed “Super Weapon,” Then Flies Bombers Near Alaska on July 4th

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By Justin Fishel and Luis Martinez. As Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July holiday, four Russian long-range bomber aircraft flew close enough to the US shores that they were intercepted by military fighter jets. The first set of two bombers flew near Alaska and just 30 minutes later a separate set flew far off the west coast of California.

According to officials at NORAD the flights stayed within international airspace and at no time did any of the Russian bombers enter or get close to entering sovereign North American boundaries.

The first incident occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. EDT on July 4, when Alaskan-based NORAD F-22 fighters intercepted and visually identified two Russian TU-95 “Bear” long-range bomber aircraft flying off the coast of the Aleutian Islands within the Air Defense Identification Zone (an area of international waters that stretches 200 miles from US coastline), officials at NORAD said in a statement to ABC News. (Read more from “Russian Bombers Near Alaska on July 4th” HERE)

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Russia Claims to Have Developed Secret ‘Superweapon’ Capable of Switching off Foreign Satellites and Enemy Weapons

By Mark Prigg. Russia has claimed to have built a revolutionary new weapon system that can render enemy satellites and weapons useless.
Its Russian makers say it is a ‘fundamentally new electronic warfare system’ which can be mounted on ground-based as well as air- and sea-borne carriers.

However, it has refused to reveal how the system works.

It is described as ‘a fundamentally new electronic warfare system capable of suppressing cruise missile and other high-precision weaponry guidance systems and satellite radio-electronic equipment.’ (Read more from this story HERE)

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Who’s the “Evil Empire” Now? Russia Says It’s Godless America

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At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.”

More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West.

“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”

In his state of the nation address in mid-December, Mr. Putin also portrayed Russia as a staunch defender of “traditional values” against what he depicted as the morally bankrupt West. Social and religious conservatism, the former KGB officer insisted, is the only way to prevent the world from slipping into “chaotic darkness.”

As part of this defense of “Christian values,” Russia has adopted a law banning “homosexual propaganda” and another that makes it a criminal offense to “insult” the religious sensibilities of believers. (Read more from “Who’s the “Evil Empire” Now? Russia Says It’s Godless America” HERE)

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“Urgent Need”: Pentagon Building Cruise Missile Shield to Defend US Cities From Russia Weapon Advances

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The Pentagon is quietly working to set up an elaborate network of defenses to protect American cities from a barrage of Russian cruise missiles.

The plan calls for buying radars that would enable National Guard F-16 fighter jets to spot and shoot down fast and low-flying missiles. Top generals want to network those radars with sensor-laden aerostat balloons hovering over U.S. cities and with coastal warships equipped with sensors and interceptor missiles of their own.

One of those generals is Adm. William Gortney, who leads U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, and North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Earlier this year, Gortney submitted an “urgent need” request to put those new radars on the F-16s that patrol the airspace around Washington. Such a request allows a project to circumvent the normal procurement process.

While no one will talk openly about the Pentagon’s overall cruise missile defense plans, much of which remains classified, senior military officials have provided clues in speeches, congressional hearings and other public forums over the past year. The statements reveal the Pentagon’s concern about advanced cruise missiles being developed by Russia.

“We’re devoting a good deal of attention to ensuring we’re properly configured against such an attack in the homeland, and we need to continue to do so,” Adm. Sandy Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a May 19 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington. (Read more from “Pentagon Building Cruise Missile Shield to Defend US Cities From Russia” HERE)

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Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun’

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The state-owned Russian defense firm, United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., reported to state-owned news site Sputnik that they’d developed a microwave-based weapon they plan to show off privately at the Russian Defense Ministry’s Army-2015 expo June 16-19 . . .

“The new system is equipped with a high-power relativistic generator and reflector antenna, management and control system, and a transmission system, which is fixed on the chassis of BUK surface-to-air missile systems,” a UIMC spokesman told Sputnik News. “When mounted on a special platform, the ‘microwave gun’ is capable of ensuring perimeter defense at 360 degrees.”

The U.S. has a similar microwave weapon in development, the “Counter-electronics high-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project” missile targets electronics inside buildings. The CHAMP missile would shut down computers, radio communication and other electronic functions to disable a building’s defenses. (Read more from “Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun'” HERE)

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US, Russian Aircraft Came Within 10 Feet Over Black Sea

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By Barbara Starr. A Russian fighter jet, flying at high speed, came within 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Black Sea late last month, several U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

The Russian jet flew alongside the U.S. plane at the same altitude, broke off, and then shadowed the plane before leaving the area in the May 30 incident, the officials said. The U.S. aircraft took no evasive measures, and no other details were immediately available. Military officials could not say whether a diplomatic protest had been filed.

The close call comes weeks after another incident between the U.S. and Russia over the skies of Europe, when a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 Flanker in what authorities called an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.” (Read more from “US, Russian Aircraft Came Within 10 Feet Over Black Sea” HERE)

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Putin, Once Critical of Stalin, Now Embraces Soviet Dictator’s Tactics

By Carol J. Williams. Only six years ago, President Vladimir Putin visited the Polish port of Gdansk, birthplace of the Solidarity movement that threw off Soviet domination, and reassured his Eastern European neighbors that Russia had only friendly intentions.

Putin spoke harshly that day of the notorious World War II-era pact that former Soviet leader Josef Stalin had signed with Adolf Hitler — an agreement that cleared the way for the Nazi occupation of Poland and Soviet domination of the Baltics — calling it a “collusion to solve one’s problems at others’ expense.”

But Putin’s view of history appears to have undergone a startling transformation. Last month, the Russian leader praised the 1939 nonaggression accord with Hitler as a clever maneuver that forestalled war with Germany. Stalin’s 29-year reign, generally seen by Russians in recent years as a dark and bloody chapter in the nation’s history, has lately been applauded by Putin and his supporters as the foundation on which the great Soviet superpower was built.

Across a resurgent Russia, Stalin lives again, at least in the minds and hearts of Russian nationalists who see Putin as heir to the former dictator’s model of iron-fisted rule. Recent tributes celebrate Stalin’s military command acumen and geopolitical prowess. His ruthless repression of enemies, real and imagined, has been brushed aside by today’s Kremlin leader as the cost to be paid for defeating the Nazis.

As Putin has sought to recover territory lost in the 1991 Soviet breakup, his Stalinesque claim to a right to a “sphere of influence” has allowed him to legitimize the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and declare an obligation to defend Russians and Russian speakers beyond his nation’s borders. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Senior NATO Officer: West Will Likely Be at War this Summer, Lucky if it’s not Nuclear

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Photo Credit: AP Is the world going mad? Military posturing is quietly reaching new extremes in Europe, the Mediterranean and the South China Sea. And the provocative bluster has just reached new heights.

The source was anonymous. But the mouthpiece has a measure of credibility. High profile military analyst and former US Naval War College lecturer John Schindler tweeted last week: “Said a senior NATO (non-US) GOFO to me today: ‘We’ll probably be at war this summer. If we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear.’ Let that sink in” . . .

The warning comes as Europe engages in some of its biggest ever war games — right on Russia’s front door. It’s a deliberate ploy, intended to remind Moscow of the consequences of its duplicitous invasion of Ukraine.

Half a world away, the “w” word was mentioned again yesterday. This time in an editorial by a Chinese state controlled paper. Said the Global Times: “If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea.”

It came as China’s government effectively declared a “no fly zone” over the disputed waterway after warning the US over its “provocative” aerial reconnaissance of several islands. (Read more from “The ‘War’ Word Is Being Increasingly Heard as Europe, Russia, China and the United States Adopt Provocative Postures” HERE)

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After Russian Special Forces Soldiers Captured, Ukraine Says it’s Fighting a Real War Against Russia

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Photo Credit: Business Insider Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sparked fresh Kremlin fury by warning that his crisis-torn country was fighting a “real war” against Russian aggressors that could escalate at any time.

The pro-Western leader said the weekend capture of two purported Russian special forces members proved the separatist uprising in the industrial east of Ukraine was a guise for a Moscow-orchestrated campaign aimed at breaking up his ex-Soviet state.

“This is not a fight with Russian-backed separatists, this is a real war with Russia,” the 49-year-old Ukrainian leader told the BBC . . .

Ukraine’s military on Tuesday showed off two wounded Russians who had been taken prisoner during a firefight in Lugansk — a blue-collar region that together with neighbouring Donetsk revolted against Kiev’s shift toward the West 13 months ago.

The men testified during a taped interrogation that they entered the war zone nearly two months ago as part of a 200-strong reconnaissance unit from the Russian army’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). (Read more from “After Russian Special Forces Soldiers Captured, Ukraine Says it’s Fighting a Real War Against Russia” HERE)

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Russia Says It Can Deploy Nuclear Arms to Crimea

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Russia’s envoy to the NATO alliance said on Friday that Moscow will bolster military forces in occupied Ukraine, and is not banned from deploying nuclear arms in Crimea.

“Everything that we do in Crimea fully complies with all obligations of the Russian Federation under international treaties. We do not violate anything, there are no prohibitions on us deploying certain weapons systems,” said Alexander Grushko, the envoy, when asked if nuclear arms would be placed in Crimea.

Grushko also declined to say whether nuclear arms currently are deployed inside the Ukrainian territory forcibly annexed by Russia in March 2014. He made the remarks in a video press conference from Moscow with reporters in Brussels, where NATO headquarters is located.

European Command spokesman Capt. Greg Hicks said Grushko’s comments were “rhetoric” and a “diatribe” that would not alter the NATO position on the issue. . .

A State Department official agreed. Additionally, the official said stationing nuclear arms in Crimea would “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in breach of [Russia’s] obligations under the U.N. Charter, and to be inconsistent with Russia’s commitments under the Helsinki Final Act and the Budapest Memorandum.” (Read more from “Russia Says It Can Deploy Nuclear Arms to Crimea” HERE)

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Frozen Assets: Inside the Spy War for Control of the Arctic

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Photo Credit: Foreign Policy

Photo Credit: Foreign Policy

In August 2014, two Norwegian scientists set off with 21 tons of supplies—food, equipment to measure ocean depth, an instrument to clock water currents, computers, and a specially designed hovercraft named Sabvabaa (Inuit for “flows swiftly over it”)—loaded onto a jagged-edged slab of ice about 200 miles from the North Pole. Unlike their cargo, the researchers’ plan was simple: For the upcoming months, the frozen island would float aimlessly, ferrying a then 72-year-old Yngve Kristoffersen and his younger colleague, Audun Tholfsen, around the Arctic, taking them where even icebreakers could not go.

They were there to drill hydroholes through the ice, film the ocean floor, and collect sediment cores that are millions of years old. After weeks adrift, their ice floe eventually led them into an Arctic no man’s land where temperatures can drop to minus 45 degrees Celsius and trigger powerful gales. The two men were alone but for the occasional white fox. That’s why, in October 2014, the hardy researchers were stunned to spot something unmistakable about two miles from their base: visitors.

As the scientists approached lights they had spotted in the distance, they made out the hulking black bow and sail of a submarine poking up through the ice. But before they reached the site, it quickly disappeared. Based on photographs taken by the scientists, the Norwegian team later determined that the vessel was likely the Orenburg, a Russian sub—which carries with it a nuclear-powered mini-sub—used for deep-dive intelligence missions . . .

The run-in was anything but coincidental. Like Kristoffersen and Tholfsen, the Orenburg was there to drill into undersea ranges in order to collect geological samples from the Lomonosov Ridge, a little-known underwater mountain chain that rises about 12,000 feet above the seabed and stretches for more than 1,000 miles. Under and around this formation lies nearly a quarter of the Earth’s remaining fossil fuel resources. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds a staggering 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, approximately 90 billion barrels, as well as 30 percent of its natural gas, or about 1,669 trillion cubic feet.

Worth an estimated $17.2 trillion, an amount roughly equivalent to the entire U.S. economy, these resources have been trapped for eons under a dome of ice and snow. . . (Read more from “Frozen Assets: Inside the Spy War for Control of the Arctic” HERE)

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In a First, Russia and China Conduct “Provocative” Live-Fire Naval Excercises in Mediterranean

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lead_960Neither Russia nor China has one inch of coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, making it an unlikely and provocative venue for their first joint naval war games.

The 10 days of maneuvers that got underway Monday will include live-fire exercises in the strategic sea connecting Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The point is lost on no one: A powerful new alliance of eastern giants is flexing its muscles in the very backyard of Western Europe — much as China has done on its own in the Pacific.

The war games follow Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, where he headlined Victory Day celebrations and spent three days making billion-dollar deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s World War II allies mostly stayed away.

Russia has been driven into the arms of its communist neighbor by Western sanctions imposed for its role in the bloody Ukraine crisis. The United States and European Union have cut off Russian businesses and its government from international lending and provoked tit-for-tat trade embargoes that have hurt both sides.

In response, Putin has steered his country away from a U.S.-dominated post-Soviet world order, pivoting instead toward China, its not-always-friendly eastern neighbor. (Read more from “In a First, Russia and China Conduct Live-Fire Naval Excercises in Mediterranean” HERE)

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